Jack's 1st Steps!

New Year's Eve!!  Jack picked an easy day for us to remember the 1st time he took steps of his own (Eli took his 1st steps on my birthday)!!  We've been practicing walking with him a lot.  When JR got home from work today he went into the office to take off his shoes.  Jack and I followed him in there, Jack in the lead with me holding his hands and walking behind him.  We stopped and he acted like he wanted me to let go of his hands so I did.  I came around in front of him and kneeled down, he was standing there in front of me for about 5 seconds and I said "come on jack!"  With a huge smile he took 3 to 4 steps on his own before he fell into my lap.  They were very sturdy steps.  We were all there to see it and it was very exciting!!  I know it means more "trouble" but I'm anxious for the next step into big boyhood (no pun intended!).  

Christmas Eve 2013

We were a little under the weather this year for Christmas but that didn't stop us from having fun.  On Christmas Eve we stayed home and did some cleaning, laundry and most importantly, made Christmas cookies!  We had to make sure Santa had cookies.

Eli's elf left him a Christmas Eve goody bag before he went back to the North Pole.  When JR got home from work Eli got to open it.  Inside he found: a pair of Christmas pajamas for him and Jack, a new plate and mug for Santas cookies, hot cocoa and a new snowman mug to drink, a Christmas puzzle and book, plans to build a lego Christmas tree and some lollipops.  There was also some reindeer food for Eli to sprinkle on the lawn, so they could find their way.  It was oats with sprinkles mixed in :). He had so much fun.

Here he is sprinkling the reindeer food!

Eli didn't have much trouble getting to sleep after we assembled his Christmas tree, set up the cookies for Santa, cut the apples and carrots for the reindeer, drank some hot cocoa, and read the Christmas story.  

Picking out Santa's cookies 

Putting together carrots and apples for the reindeer.

Drinking hot cocoa.

We got all the presents under the tree and I was so excited I almost couldn't fall

asleep!  It's great seeing the joy in their little faces on Christmas morning.  

Can you see the bed head? ❤️

Jack is 16 Months

Jack is a busy boy.  He's not walking yet but getting really close.  Just this month he is starting to take forward steps while holding our hands or pushing a toy.  Christmas came at a great time because we made sure to get him plenty of items that he could practice with.  He is really proud of himself when he walks.

As far as Jack's personality goes, we think he has a good sense of humor, loves to dance, and loves music.  Jack seems to be more sensitive than Eli.  He takes longer to come around to strangers.  He also cries very easily.  We try our best to keep him happy but this is a busy household.  

Jack has 7 teeth now.  Part of the reason he's been crabby lately is because he got one of his molars.  I feel like teething is harder on Jack than it was for Eli.  We have to stop sometimes and remember that there are so many things that babies are going through at this age and this is not necessarily who Jack is.  If that make sense?  I mean he's not always going to cry all the time and be grumpy.  

We also discovered that Jack has some intolerances or allergies to foods.  On Thanksgiving I gave Jack a couple spoonfuls of ice cream.  Within 10 mins the area around his mouth, neck and wrists everywhere the ice cream had touched was red and welted with hives.  I had my suspicions on two other occasions when I had given him a couple of tastes of Eli's milkshake.  His face had gotten really red where the ice cream had touched.  As a baby I had given him yogurt and he always spit up afterwards. And another time I gave him a yogurt drink and he threw it up all over the place.  So Jack doesn't eat any dairy and it is limited in my diet (we are still

nursing).  

He really likes meat!  Especially hot dogs, sausage and bacon.  Chicken nuggets and fries he enjoys when big brother Eli eats them.  He likes ketchup and pasta sauce.  He likes pretzels and bunny crackers and fruit snacks too.  He likes grapes, blueberries, and strawberries.  He loves coconut ice cream :).  

He's better in the car but still fusses most trips.  He is still facing backwards in his car seat.  We will turn him around when he turns 2 (that is the recommended age, or longer if able).  

Playing with his new vacuum cleaner for Christmas.  

December Instagram

It's been a busy month so far.  I'm taking a page out of another bloggers book I've seen.  Here are a few pictures from my Instagram:

Top row from left to right: Our beautiful

Christmas tree and fireplace.  We have an extra stocking hanging from our mantle this year for Grandma!!  We got new stockings to celebrate.  Jack feeding Charlie his food, they are new best friends, haha.  Jack making his new funny face, he's so cute.

Second row from left to right:  Eli's Dear Santa letter.  He asked for 5 things this year.  He wrote the entire list himself.  Jack napping by the Christmas Tree.  Our elf on the shelf Snook causing elf shananigans!  He got locked up in lego jail for misbehavior :)

Third row from left to right:  Jack is looking outside the window at all the snow we got.  We bundled up and braved the frigid cold to run through the snow for 10 mins.  Like I said, it was really cold.  Snook came back from the North Pole with a super cape!  He needed it to keep him warm and navigate the windy weather.

Last row from left to right:  We went to the Christmas Tree Farm with Annice this year.  It was fun including her in our annual tradition.  Last year I was thinking Jack would be walking by now but next year he will be for sure.  He will have a blast running around there!  Jack saying hello to Charlie,  he loves the cats.  

That's our month so far.  We will have more pictures soon!

Sami

Storybook Forest 2013

Eli and I went to Storybook Forest two years ago.  I loved it and wanted to take both boys this year.  Daddy came with us too this time! 

We stopped at about a dozen booths and trick or treated.  Eli loved it.  We skipped the hayride, games, and campfire this time.  Instead we went and grabbed some pizza.  Honestly without doing all the things we didn't do I think it's expensive.  Jack had gotten pretty tired by the time we were done trick or treating so we didn't think he'd enjoy sticking around for the hayride and stuff.  I bet next year it'll be more fun for us all!

 Doing a Luigi jump :)

Super Mario Pumpkin

Eli was looking so forward to carving his pumpkin this year.  We didn't do one last year or the year before.  Actually I'm not even sure if we ever have because he was too young to help really.  We got it all ready and I asked him if he wanted to scoop out the seeds.  As soon as he realized he was going to get dirty he was out of there, haha.  I could have bet that was going to happen.

I'm not sticking my hands in there Mom!

We settled on Super Mario for our pumpkin design.  As soon as I started cutting out the template I was thinking what the heck did I get myself into?!  It took me a while to get that done.  Finally I got the pattern traced onto the pumpkin and Eli helped me make the first cut, Mario's nose.  I finished the rest myself.

The Mario template 

The finished product!

I'm so glad it turned out because my triceps are killing me from all the holding, sawing and cutting.  The things we do...

Jack is 14 Months

Over the last month we've been working on reorganizing.  It keeps us all very busy.  While I was working on different things the boys would be going through all the old toys they didn't remember.  I redid Eli's room.  His clothes now hang in his closet, the drawers were too small to fit his clothes (both in size and quantity!).  It's amazing but this kid has 30 t-shirts!

New and improved closet

Nice and neat.  Top shelf holds old clothes/seasonal clothes and keepsake items.

Got new shelf baskets for his toys.

Jack has kind of taken over the playroom so I wanted to organize Eli's room and make it easy for him to find his toys.  He enjoys playing at his desk.

Now onto Jack.  He is adding more foods to his list.  He really enjoys meats, little bits of bacon, hot dog and sausage. Sometimes chicken.  I gave him some soft cucumber yesterday.  I make chicken soup every week and he LOVES the broth.  He loves French fries.  He loves ice cream.  He's thrown up a couple of times with dairy so I only give him a couple of licks.  I'm trying to stay away from grains until he's a bit older. He still gags, scratches his tongue to get whatever it is he doesn't like off of it.  So for now he's still mostly nursing.  If he keeps improving with his foods (and drinking from his sippy cup) I can see starting to cut back on nursings after the holidays.  

He is also becoming more brave with sitting down from the standing position.  He will sit down when he's at the train table or couch, but other things are a little too high up for him and he gets stuck.

He really loves to play peek-a-boo.  He will cover his face, sometimes he misses his eyes completely but we know he means to cover them.  He loves to tickle us and he says tickle, tickle all the time.  Ball is his other favorite word.  

He loves this book with the kitty cats and he said "Jade" when he saw them.

Parkhurst Pumpkin Patch 2013

We've gone to this pumpkin patch every year since we moved here.  I just love it.  They have a campfire going, cornfield maze, tire swing, fun fort, hay bales to climb, animal petting area, pony rides, and hayride.  You get a bring home a small (very small) pumpkin with admission.

Checking out the pumpkins and goards

He made it to the top of this fallen down tree and not sure he liked how high up he was

He spent the most time on these hay bales, jumping from one....

....to the next!

Hi Daddy!  Give me the camera

I snapped a few photos too...

Eli's 1st Parent Teacher Conference

A picture outside of the classroom that Eli painted.

Just wanted to take a few minutes to talk about Eli and how proud we are of him!  JR and I went to his parent teacher conference today.  His teacher Mrs. Blevins started off by saying that his assessment went great.  He knows all his letters and numbers.  

She also asked how long he has been reading for.  Eli has recognized words for a long time but since school has started he's been really interested in reading.  At school they have the book "Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?".  We were in target and saw it and he read the whole book to me there.  I got him a couple of easy readers.  He read me "Pete the cats big lunch" the other night.  It's so fun to see him read!!  She told us she was reading a book to the class the other day and she decided to skip a sentence because she didn't think they'd understand it.  He realized that she skipped it and called her out, haha.  She said "wow, you noticed that huh?".  

She said in class he is a leader, loves to do things right, he is always shouting out the answers right away (sometimes before she even finishes the sentence!).  Academically he is doing awesome, he just has to learn how to raise his hand, give others a chance to answer, etc.  Such a fine line because you want them to be involved but Eli does it Jeopardy style (JR's words, haha).  

She said he's great with his friends, plays in every area of the class (as opposed to just sticking to the trains, or dinosaurs). She said he's a bit of a class clown.  He laughs really grand and all the other kids get going which is fun sometimes but again...he has to learn when it's appropriate.  The only other thing he needs work on is his fine motor skills.  Holding the crayons, pencils, and cutting paper.  We are going to start practicing more.  

The teacher wrote to me a few weeks ago and told me that they've been working with him about tattling.  They only want him to come to them if someone is hurt, or in danger, etc.  They want them to learn to problem solve.  She said Eli is doing a lot better in the last couple weeks.  She can see him wanting to come to her and tattle, but then he will go back to his friend and say "hey I was playing with that" or whatever the problem was on his own.  I'm so proud of him.  I can imagine how challenging that must be for him to resist.

Wednesday is Fall break and we have plans to go to the Pumpkin Patch this week.  School is back in session on Monday.

Mama

Earlier this week, JR came home from work and Jack crawled excitedly towards him saying "dada".  

Tonight after bath, I handed Jack to JR so I could get changed for bed and when I came back, Jack pointed at me and said "mama".  Ooh that's so exciting.  I love that he is saying words so much faster than Eli did.  

Earlier this afternoon we were at Grandma's house and Jack was kneeling at my feet, both arms up in the air ready to be picked up.  And he said "up!".  

Playing with his cars.  He loves cars.

Eli is 5 years Old!

We had a fun day today.  Last night I decorated his bathroom mirror with a birthday message and here is what he saw when he woke up this morning

It says: it's your birthday!  We love you Eli.  A little hard to read with the lighting.  I also put a message on the back window of my car and Eli's car door window.

The message on the back window said "HONK, it's Eli's Birthday!".  We got two cars to honk at us ;)

I was really excited to bring cupcakes to Eli's class today.  They sang happy birthday to him and then he passed out the plates at the tables.  I helped the teacher pass out the cupcakes and stayed for a few minutes.  I didn't have much time before I had to go back and pick him up.  His friend Mia made him a birthday card and gave him a lollipop, it was so cute.  

Eli standing up in class while his friends sang happy birthday.

After school we headed to Dynamo Gym where we met up with Grandma.  It was a lot of fun to watch Eli run around and play with him too.  Jack had a great time too.  It was kind of an interesting realization that Eli is one of the big kids now.  He isnt allowed in the ball pit anymore.  Jack really liked going down the slide.

After we played for awhile we came home and relaxed.  Eli got a new video game for his birthday so he played that some.  A present for him had arrived while we were gone.  It was a Mario Kart bedspread and sheet set.  I snuck it into the washer and dryer and set it up in his room.  Once JR got home from work, we brought him in there and he got to see it. He loves it!  I do too, it's really nice.  He opened his other presents and then we made dinner.  I thought it would be fun to get Eli involved with making his birthday dinner.  We made canned biscuit mini pizzas.  He put on the sauce and cheese.  They were yummy!

After dinner we sang happy birthday to Eli and he ate his mini bundt cake that JR brought home today.  We had a fun day!

Yum.  Bundt cake.

Here are some fun facts about Eli:

Favorite color:  Green (for Luigi)

Favorite show:  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Favorite food:  Pizza

Best friend:  Parker (from school)

Favorite treat:  Ice Cream (vanilla)

Favorite book:  Charlie Brown the Great Pumpkin

Favorite toy:  Mario Plush toys (boomerang bro)

Doesn't like:  The smell of broccoli

Really loves:  Playing Wii U

Eli loves that he's better at playing the Wii U now that he's 5.  Haha.  

He has grown up a lot this year.  He handles his disappointment a lot better and has a lot more control over himself when he gets angry.  I have no doubt being in school has helped even more.  He has become very independent.  Every morning he gets ready for school on his own (except when we run behind and I push him along a little faster).  He enjoys playing by himself in his room with his big boy toys.  He is so great with Jack and loves him so much.  He has wonderful manners and is always getting compliments on that.  We have his parent teacher conference next week and I'm excited to hear how he is doing in school.  

Happy Birthday Eli!  We love you!  I am so lucky to be your mommy.

Being a goof :)